Whippersnapper
by Anisky
Summary: The story of Morgan Adams as a child, and how she became “The Notorious Lady Pirate.” (Cutthroat Island fanfiction)
1. Default Chapter

Title: Whippersnapper  
  
Author: Anisky  
  
Summary:  The story of Morgan Adams as a child, and how she became "The Notorious Lady Pirate."   Cutthroat Island.   
  
Rating: PG  
  
Archiving: Just ask.  HoneyB87@aol.com   
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Five-year-old Morgan Adams looked down at her mother, tears in her eyes.  "Mommy, what do you mean?"   
  
Lilly Adams looked up at her daughter, wheezing.  "My dear child… I love you.  I have to leave soon."  
  
"NO!" Morgan stomped her foot.  "Don't go.  It's not fair."  
  
"I…don't have a choice, sweet one."  Lilly closed her eyes, resting for a moment before she spoke again.  "I've sent for your father.  He should be here before I die."  
  
"Daddy?" Morgan paused to remember.  It had been half a year since she'd last seen him, a very long time for a girl of her age.  "Why is he coming?"  
  
"You must go to live with him now, my darling. When I'm gone."  
  
Morgan considered this.  Her Daddy was nice but scared her a little.  He wasn't nearly as scary as Uncle Dawg though! But… "Mommy, he lives on a ship," she reminded her mother.   
  
"I know Morgan…" Lilly forced her eyes open.  "Don't you worry.  It will be all right.  You'll see."  
  
"But why do you have to go?" asked Morgan, sulking. "It's not fair!"  
  
"It's not," her mother agreed.  "I wish I didn't have to leave."  
  
"Me too," sniffled Morgan.  
  
The young girl stayed by her mother's side all day and all night.  Morgan was normally a very active child; unlike many girls her age, she loved to run around outside and play.  But now, she just sat there, looking at her mother and talking to her.  She couldn't bear the fact that soon her beloved mother would be gone.    
  
Morgan didn't want Daddy to come.  Whenever he came, there were scary men with him.  They said bad things that made Mommy scold them.  If they were grown men and were still bad enough for Mommy to yell at them, she didn't want to be around them.    
  
But after a couple of days, a very messy, dirty man walked in and Morgan remembered him from his last visit.  She sunk back into a corner of the room as he came in.    
  
He walked right over to the bed where Lilly was lying.  "Lilly, I'm sorry," he said, taking her hand.   
  
"It's not your fault, Harry," she said softly.  "Nobody could stop the sickness. It's my lungs.  Just… look after Morgan for me.  Promise me."    
  
"Lilly…" Harry held her hand and looked into her eyes.  "It's no sort of life for a young girl.  I can't just stop being what I am, and I don't think she would like growing up on a …" he lowered his voice.  "On a pirate ship."   
  
"Harry, you're the only family she has."  Lilly matched his gaze, despite the pain she was in.  "The rest of them left when I had her out of wedlock, you know that.  She needs you.  Don't worry, she is very active and will grow to like it."  
  
"No I won't!" Morgan said, stepping out of her corner.  "I want to stay here.  I don't want to go with him, Mommy."  
  
"Harry, Morgan, both of you."  Lilly gasped for breath as she spoke.  "I wish for you to raise her, Harry.  I know that you are a pirate but you are a _good man." _Lilly turned to her daughter.  "Just give the life a chance.  You always like to run around outdoors, don't you? You may find you like it more than you think."  
  
Morgan crossed her arms and shook her head, but Harry sighed.    
  
"If it is what you wish," he told her, "then that is what I will do."    
  
"It is what I wish," whispered Lilly, sounding exhausted.  She drifted off to sleep.    
  
  
****  
  
  
The funeral, like most funerals, was a solemn affair.  Morgan, for once in her life, sat quietly at her seat.  Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she didn't even feel well enough to make loud sobs.    
  
Her father was sitting next to her.  Just hours after he had arrived, Lilly had taken her last breath.  He had been there as well when she had died, and Morgan was upset that he just came and took her mothers' attention right before she died.  Lilly's last words had been to Morgan, and they had been of love, but the young girl still had to share her mother for the first time in her five years.  Right before she died, too.    
  
Now her father was here.  She didn't know what was going to happen to her, or where he was going to take her.  She just knew that she would have to leave home.    
  
Finally the man at the front stopped talking.  Now, at her death, it suddenly seemed that all the people who had avoided Morgan and her mommy while she was alive were coming to be sad about it.  Morgan suddenly hated them, but remained silent.      
  
She stood up when the service was done, and walked shakily up to the coffin.  She looked inside.  "Mommy, please come back," she cried.  "Please."  
  
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up.  It was her father, with a big man who somehow looked young next to him.  "Morgan, I'm very sorry, but we must go now," her father said.  
  
"No!" yelled Morgan.  "I want Mommy back!"  
  
"She's not coming back, Morgan.  I'm sorry."    
  
Morgan stomped her foot.  "NO.  She is."  
  
 "Well, she's definitely your daughter," said the young man.  "She's even as stubborn as you!"  
  
Harry nodded to him.  "Aye.  Morgan, this is Blair."   
  
Morgan didn't look up, she just kept staring at her dead mother's face.  
  
"Harry, we have to go," said Blair.  "It was dangerous enough coming here."    
  
Harry took Morgan's hand firmly.  "He's right.  I'm sorry, but we must leave.  Now, child."  He pulled her along, and Morgan followed reluctantly but without protest.    
  
"Shouldn't I gather my things into my trunk?" she asked.    
  
"No time," said Blair.  "We need to get you to the ship."    
  
"But what will I wear?" the young girl stalled.   
  
"We'll find something," her father assured her as the hurried down the road towards the dock.    
  
  
****  
Several Days Later  
****  
  
Morgan sat on the deck of the ship, looking out over the ocean.  She missed her mother so much, and she missed being on land.  Her dress was dirty and ripped, but the only thing they had that she could wear was a long shirt.  She was not going to wear something like _that_.    
  
Everybody here was rough, and mean, and Morgan was getting seasick besides.  All she wanted to do was run home to her mother and hug her forever.  But her mother was gone.    
  
"Morgan, sweetheart?"  Harry sat next to his daughter.  "You really have to eat."  
  
Morgan shook her head.  "The food here is yucky," she said plaintively.  "And the men are scary while they eat."   
  
"Well, I have an idea!" her father tried.  "We can eat together in your room.  Would you like that?"  
  
"I want to go home," said Morgan simply as she looked off to where the island that had been her home had disappeared into the horizon.    
  
"I know hun, but… this will be your home soon!" he told her.  "I promise."  
  
"I hate it here," she said.  "This will never be my home."    
  
"Well, I hope you change your mind," he said, getting up.  He leaned over to kiss Morgan's forehead, but she scooted away from him.  "I'll be back to make sure you eat dinner."  
  
Morgan folded her arms and didn't answer him.  Like many young children, when adults tried to comfort her, it made her all the more upset.  She was determined now to show her father that she would never like this awful, filthy ship.   
  
_Never._    
  
  
  
  
TBC…  
  
Reviews please!!! ***big puppy-dog eyes* **


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Whippersnapper  
  
Author: Anisky  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Cutthroat Island or anything in it.   
  
Summary:  The story of Morgan Adams as a child, and how she became "The Notorious Lady Pirate."   Cutthroat Island.   
  
Rating: PG  
  
Archiving: Just ask.  HoneyB87@aol.com   
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
"Morgan, have you eaten yet?" The sun was beginning to set and Harry had just gotten back to his daughter, who was still sitting in the same place looking out over the sea.  
  
Morgan shook her head, refusing to look at him.  
  
"Well, I have a special treat," he told her.  
  
"I don't want it," said Morgan stubbornly.    
  
Harry had really no idea how to deal with children, girls in particular.  He was really at a loss about how to treat this girl who was suddenly his responsibility. He cleared his throat.  "Well, Morgan, I'm going to have to insist that you come with me."    
  
Morgan shook her head again, folding her arms and still not looking at him.   
  
"Morgan, aren't you hungry?" he asked.  "I have some good food just for you."  
  
"I don't want it," she repeated.   
  
He considered his options.  Lord, why did he have to deal with this child?  "If you come and have some food, we'll buy you some clothes next time we go to port."  
  
Morgan looked up at him for the first time with a look that was strangely calculating for a girl her age.  "Proper clothes?" she asked finally.  "A dress and boots and everything?"  
  
"Proper clothes," he promised, holding out his hand for her to take.  "Come on and eat."  
  
She looked at his hand and hopped up from her seat but did not take his hand.  She just stood there, waiting for him to move.   
  
Harry smiled and tried not to laugh as he turned and led her to his quarters.  He suddenly agreed with Lilly: no matter what the little girl thought now, she was definitely going to adapt quite nicely to the life of a pirate.    
  
He pulled the smoked sausage and chocolate cake out from his desk.  "Here you go, Morgan," he said, setting the sausage in front of her.  "Once you're done, you can have the cake."  
  
"Thanks," she said quietly.  
  
"I'm sorry we don't have any silverware, Morgan," Harry told her.  "We don't usually have any need for it."  
  
"It's ok," she said just as quietly as she picked up the sausage.  "I never use it anyway.  It drives… it used to drive Mum crazy."  
  
He gave a sad smile as he looked at his daughter.  "I know you miss her a lot," he said.  "I wish there was something I could have done."  
  
Morgan just shrugged and began to eat rather messily.    
  
"Morgan, I know this is difficult for you.  It's a new place.  But I think that if you just give it a chance you could like it a lot here.  Your mother said that you'd like it here.  You'd believe her right?"   
  
Morgan looked up at him with a confused look on her face.  "Harry.  I'm eating."  She turned back to her sausage, tensed up, obviously expecting him to be angry that she refused to call him "Daddy" or "Father."  
  
Instead, he threw his head back and laughed.  "Of course."    
  
The young girl looked up at him again, surprised.  "You're not angry that I called you Harry?"  
  
"No," Harry told her, "in fact I prefer you call me that."  
  
"Oh.  Okay."  Morgan polished off the sausage and reached across the table to get the chocolate cake.  Halfway across the table she froze and looked up guiltily.    
  
"What?" asked Harry.    
  
"Aren't… aren't you going to yell at me for no table manners?"  
  
The pirate raised his eyebrows at his daughter.  "Do you remember where you are?"   
  
"Oh.  A pirate ship.  Right."  Morgan blushed and leaned over across the table, pulling the chocolate cake over to her.  She settled back in her seat and proceeded to stuff her face with the chocolaty goodness.   "So," she asked through mouthfuls of cake, "when will we be going to port?"  
  
"In a day or so," he told her.  "There's one nearby."   
  
She nodded and finished the cake.  "Alright then.  A proper dress, you promise?" she asked again, still with suspicion.  
  
He nodded solemnly. "Yes, a very proper dress."  
  
"Good," said Morgan primly, a strange sight when there was chocolate smeared all over her face.  Harry made a mental note to make sure to get her boys' clothes as well; he had a strange hunch she would prefer them all too soon.  
  
***  
  
Morgan lay there in her bed as the ship rocked back and forth and back and forth.  She knew that some people got very sick when they were on a ship, but she didn't have any problem with it.  In fact the rocking of the ship was strangely comforting, putting her somewhere in the mind of a rocking cradle.    
  
She still didn't know what to think of this ship.  It was so strange, and the men there definitely scared her.  But she knew she kind of liked the way she wouldn't have to worry about her manners or anything like that.  She didn't know if she could get used to the food, though.  It always made her wrinkle her nose and gag.  She wondered if there would be any way to get her father to get her good food for every day.  
  
She rolled over and before she knew it, she was sound asleep in her tiny cabin, with a peaceful smile on her face.    
  
When she awoke, it was the next morning.  This was unusual for Morgan; she usually had trouble sleeping.  She opened her eyes, stretched, and tumbled out of bed with a little squeak.   
  
"Ow," she said, rubbing her arm where she fell.  There was nothing to get dressed in, and she was fairly sure that there was no reason to brush her hair or wash her face.  (What a relief.  Morgan always hated doing those things.)  So, she shrugged and opened the door to her cabin, leaning out.    
  
Mommy _did_ tell Morgan to try this life out.  Morgan was very suspicious of the men here and the way they lived, but if Mommy had wanted her to then she decided she'd at least try.  She could always run away if she didn't like it, after all.  
  
Morgan shielded her eyes from the sun as she went out onto the deck.  Most of the men were sitting around eating their breakfast.  The young girl looked around for her father, finally spotting him sitting on the railing-thingie.  Morgan wasn't sure what it was called; it was the thing up around the boat so she didn't fall off.  She walked over to him and tugged on his pant leg.   
  
"Hi, Harry," she said.  "I'm hungry."  
  
"I'm sorry," he told her, "there isn't anything for you like yesterday…could you at least try this food?"  
  
Morgan nodded reluctantly and took the piece of bread he handed her, suspiciously taking a bit of it.  To her surprise it wasn't bad.  "Harry, when are we going to get to the port?  
  
He smiled down at her.  "Sometime today, actually," he told her.  "We're closer than I thought. The wind is good"  
  
Morgan's face lit up.  "Really?" she asked with a smile.  
  
"Really," said her father.  "Now, finish up the bread."  
  
Morgan skipped over to the helm as she ate her bread.  She sat there, watching as Blair steered the ship.  After a while she spoke.  "Is it difficult to learn how to do that?" she asked.   
  
Blair looked over at her briefly.  "Easier than learning most things on this ship," he told her.    
  
"So you learn how to do _everything_?" she asked.    
  
"It's the business," he told her, walking over to untie some rope then walking back to the helm.  "We're docking at Port Royal, are we?"  
  
"Um…I guess so," said Morgan.  "At the closest port, he said."  
  
"So, Morgan, do you like this ship?"    
  
Morgan shrugged and looked over to the land in the distance.  "I don't know.  It's awfully boring."  
  
Blair laughed, and Morgan looked over at him, surprised.  "What?" she asked.  "It's true, there's nothing to do."    
  
"Trust me," he told her, "There is plenty that somebody has to do on the Morning Star."   
  
Morgan wrinkled her nose.  "What?"   
  
To her dismay, Blair wouldn't tell her.  Morgan crossed her arms sulkily, and then stood up and took off, exploring the ship.  If nobody would pay attention to her, well, she would learn to make her own fun.   
  
  
_A/N: once again! Reviews!_


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